Your Continent / Your Stories

It is Your Continent : tell us your stories

The New Continent is also a collaborative platform with the aim to document the stories of people living within or outside Europe’s Schengen borders.

For some, life is dictated by restrictions on movement around or in to Europe, while for others no such restriction exists. We hope to create a document of the different ways people experience life inside and outside of the Schengen area, or along its borders.

“I used to live in the region of the three frontiers (Pays des Trois Frontières). I remember that before the Schengen agreement we used to have the three currencies in our hallway at home. Every time we went to the bakery in France we would look for the French francs. We would then drive and cross the border and being checked by customs guards just to buy some bread across the border. On the return journey this time it was French border guards (douaniers) who were asking our documents before being allowed to go back home. Luckily now it is so much simpler !”

Steve

“To cross the border before was really complicated but with the Schengen agreement we got granted a pass to cross the border and for cultivating the fields between 6am and 10pm. It is so much easier now than before, that is true.”